A collection of short stories by Ivan Raley

John looked around and saw that the place was filled with people, maybe sixty or seventy thousand people all of them listened to the man at the end of the field who was ‘preaching’ he believed that was what it was called. He wasn’t really all that sure how he had gotten there, but here he was one of the spell bound crowd of thousands.

The man said something about family and John remembered his family. He was the last child of a family of three children. The man sounded like family was a warm and fuzzy word, he should know about his family he thought.

His older brother, the ‘first born’ had always made fun of him, teased him and blamed him for anything that happened that upset his parents. He was good at everything, the star ball player, great with grades, and all the girls ran after him. But warm and fuzzy he wasn’t, he was selfish and mean.

His sister was a tramp and no one knew it; she was little Miss Perfect and everything else at school but he knew and because he knew she treated him like dirt.

If his parents loved each other he had never heard them say so, with words, with jesters, in any way. They just screamed and yelled and he just hid.

Why would this preacher call God father? If he was anything like his father he didn’t want to know him and didn’t need that a second time around. He shook his head, which entrance had he used, what made him come to this place: he thought he would just leave, but the preacher said for everyone to be still and not to disturb others.

He was talking about giving your life to Christ, being forgiven, loved and cared about. He asked if they would like to start over, visit the land of beginning again. ‘If there were such a place he would sure like to go there’. John thought to himself, he really did need to start over.

The people behind the preacher were standing and singing and all over the field he saw people moving down the steps, onto the field and going toward the front. Suddenly he saw Billy Graham turn and he was sure he was looking straight at him, and say, “Why don’t you come, let us tell you about the land of beginning again, come to Jesus, come to Jesus, Just as you are, come, do it now.”

John looked back, his seat was empty and he was half way down the field, just as He was, He was going to meet this man Jesus, he was going to find this Land of Beginning Again.